Luxembourg, 20/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 20 July, the Competitiveness Council, which had held an informal meeting in Luxembourg on Monday 20 July, announced that serious progress had been made on the question of mutual recognition in the area of standards for consumer legal rights.
Elzbieta Bienkowska, the commissioner for industrial policy, stated: “This new format proved refreshing and helped further develop the reflection” on this question. She then proceeded to provide a brief account of the different dossiers that had been discussed.
These include the principle of mutual recognition in the internal market, which appears to have crystallised the debates between ministers and the different institutional representatives that had been invited and which, according to the Luxembourg Vice Prime Minister, Étienne Schneider, chairing the meeting, characterised the significant progress that had been made.
Two points appear to have obtained consensus: firstly, the future of businesses that intend to begin work throughout Europe and which have clearly indicated on their websites the consumer rights in force in the countries where their HQ is based, as a means of providing effective information to European citizens. Secondly, it will be up to consumers whether they agree or not to the conditions indicated by the business in question (by way of ticking a box on the site).
The Luxembourg Vice Prime Minister informed EUROPE, “the European Union is currently fragmented into 28 different legislations, which hinders small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have the means of acquainting themselves with all the different legislations in force and which, out of concern for being the subject of complaints or legal proceedings, prefer not to extend their businesses beyond national borders”. He concluded that “this agreement is a good balance between consumer and corporate law” and will provide greater security to the two parties.
Enhancing mutual recognition is one of the Luxembourg Presidency priorities over the next six months. The Presidency wants to make progress on the draft revision of the “goods and services” package, for which the European Commission is expected to present a new strategy next autumn (at the end of October, according to the Luxembourg Presidency), which is still part of the inter-institutional “better regulation” agreement framework. The Luxembourg Presidency therefore hopes that the Competitiveness Council will provide its first comments on 30 November and 1 December. (Pascal Hansens)